An App A Day Keeps The Distractions Away: 9 Apps To Boost Productivity

Using apps are something we can no longer live without, helping us in pretty much every aspect of our lives, from connecting with people to travelling, and especially at work. Read through this list of apps that will boost your productivity at work and help you make your tasks a whole lot easier:

Evernote

Evernote is a well-known note-taking app, designed to make it easy for you to jot down notes, clip web pages that you are interested in, upload files and photos, and make to-do lists all within one app. Their Premium plan provides even more features, like handwriting searches, document scanning, all while keeping yourself in sync with your other devices and colleagues. It’s a handy app, especially when working in teams and keeping everyone on the same page.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android

Pricing: Basic plan is free, while Premium plan is USD $7.99/month and Business plan is $14.99/user/month.

Piktochart

Ever needed to draw up a quick infographic? What about a sales report or a keynote presentation? Piktochart is just the tool to use. It features ready-made templates to build your own presentations, posters, infographics, and more. The best part is that most of their templates look professional and require minimal editing. Piktochart is also great for teams, due to the fact that you collaborate with your colleagues and share your designs with no fuss.

Platforms: Web application

Pricing: Core features are free, while PRO plan is USD $24.17/month, and PRO Team starts at $43.33/month, depending on the number of users.

Todoist

As their website says, Todoist can ‘free up your mental space’ and help ‘regain clarity and calmness’. How exactly do they do that? Well, Todoist is a to-do list app to help you organise everything that’s going on in your life. You can easily organise your tasks according to different projects and priorities, as well as delegate tasks with others. Todoist also displays your progress and achievements, and links up with your favourite apps like Google Calendar and Dropbox to make sure you stay organised.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome/Safari/Firefox extension
Pricing: Core features are free, while Premium plan is USD $3/month and their Business plan is $5/user/month.

TQ Prospector

Marketers, listen up. If you’re ever stumped at where to find contacts to build your email marketing lists, TQ Prospector is the tool for you. By installing the Chrome extension, you can simply search up the keywords you are targeting and save the contact details of relevant search results directly from Google. The contacts can then be exported to Excel for easy organising. This tool helps to save hours of your time sourcing for contacts, by letting you get hundreds of leads in just a few minutes.

Platforms: Chrome extension

Pricing: 500 emails for free per month

Canva

Canva is a great tool to use when you need to design collaterals in a jiffy. There are tons of templates to choose from, from social media posts to presentations, flyers, resumes, letterheads, and much more. Canva is very user-friendly with an easy-to-use editing interface and lots of free resources like photos and shapes to add to your design. Keep your brand identity consistent by adding a Brand Kit, and even have your designs printed and shipped straight to your door.

Platforms: Web application, iOS, Android, Chrome extension

Pricing: Core features are free, while Canva Pro is USD $12.95/month or yearly at $9.95/month.

Trello

Trello is the tool to have if you’re constantly brainstorming ideas and collaborating with colleagues. Trello allows you to create boards and add cards and lists to them, just like you would to a pin board in real life. It’s an easy way for everyone to throw in ideas to different projects by using different boards for each. You are also able to create checklists, upload attachments, add due dates, and create teams to keep yourselves organised and focused.

Platforms: Web application, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android

Pricing: Core features are free, while Business Class is USD $9.99/user/month annually and Enterprise starts at $5.93/user/month, depending on the number of users.

Zoom

Are you finding it difficult to gather your team together for meetings or discussions? Zoom is your answer. Zoom is a video-conferencing and messaging app, designed to be consistent and reliable for everyone to use. Use the app to host meetings or conference calls online, make calls, send files and messages, and event host webinars or deal with customers one-on-one.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Chrome/Firefox extension

Pricing: Basic plan is free, Pro plan is USD $14.99/host/month, and both the Business plan (minimum of 10 hosts) and Enterprise plan (minimum of 50 hosts) is $19.99/host/month. Phones, conference rooms, and webinars are priced separately.

RescueTime

If you need to keep track of your tasks and the time you spend on each of them, use RescueTime. It works by automatically tracking the time you spend on your devices, which can give you insight into which apps or websites you’re using the most, and how productive you are on a daily basis. It even has a distraction blocker to help you focus on your tasks and make the most out of your day. Productivity can also be tracked on a team-level, and the app can generate reports of your activity as well.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Chrome/Firefox extension

Pricing: RescueTime Lite is free, while Premium is USD $6/month and RescueTime for Orgs is $6/month/team member.

Hootsuite

If you’re in charge of your company’s social media pages, this tool is for you. Hootsuite helps you to manage all your social media pages in one place, eliminating the headache of constantly switching between apps. Hootsuite works with over 35 of the most popular social media networks, and allows you to schedule your posts, curate your content, and even track your social stats and performance. You are even able to monitor different platforms to see what people are saying about your brand or competitors.